K-Mac's Hollywood

Kevin MacLean was the youngest animator at Will Vinton Studios. He was a whiz at stop-motion and jumped easily to computer. He has done numerous feature films for major studios and has started a very entertaining blog. Here he is with Morgan Fairchild, (still hot!). See more chummy celebrity pictures and learn more about Kevin here: http://kevinmaclean.blogspot.com/

Even More Albert Hurter

I thought I would share more from the rare book "He Drew As He Pleased" by Disney inspirational artist Albert Hurter.

Click on image to enlarge.

Teresa Drilling

I've been very busy and haven't had much time to post anything. I did come across this great picture of animator Teresa Drilling working on a shot at the old Will Vinton Studios. It's one of my favorite images of those days and was taken by another great animator and photographer John Ashlee Pratt. The horse was built and armatured by Jamie Haggerty who is also a brilliant composer and sound designer.

Teresa sent a comment attributing the photo to Jim Lommason, or possibly John Klicker and identifying the spot was for Norfolk Southern railroad. . Thanks for clearing things ups!

Virtual Pose and Cintiq

I kind of bashed this picture out on my Wacom tablet (Intous 3) so I’d have something to post along with this comment sent to me from Robin Ator. He has some first hand experience with the Cintiq drawing table that I thought would be helpful to anyone considering digital drawing like myself. He wrote:

Cintiqs have their problems, too. They are no panacea for whatever's ailin' ya.

1- you mention the disconnect that occurs between the wacom pen and the screen. having used the cintiq the same way, I found that having the cintiq pen on top of my drawing to be even more annoying: each time I would try to start a line at a precise spot, I'd be unable to find the spot because the stylus was exactly on top of it.

2- the angle of the screen can be set in a number of ways to accommodate the arc of your drawing hand and arm, but it's still not enough for optimum comfort, I find. with a tablet pc, at least, you can prop the thing on your knee like a sketchbook. the cintiq is so large and heavy that you can't really do that.

3- the thing heats up a great deal. so, as you use it, it's slowly cooking your drawing hand. very annoying. also, there's a faint electronic buzz to the screen as you move your hand across it, making a faint but noticeable staticky crackle. that too I find annoying.

so, I wouldn't agree that a cintiq is the electronic answer to drawing that I would like.
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Robin is a true force of nature and please check out his amazing work, (Warning: adult themes), here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/r8r/

My Friend Flickr

I forgot I had an account on Flickr. It's updated with a lot of my personal art. Some has appeared here but not all so if you want to see what I do without having to dig through other stuff check here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29289570@N00/

Thanks

The 'four old men' working on the movie "The Wild". I'm the bearded one sitting down so I don't break a hip.

Walt Kelly

Yesterday was Walt Kelly's birthday. He would have been 94. Kelly is dear to me not only for his connection with Fred Moore and Ward Kimball's unite at Disney and the work he did on the classic animated films. He is treasured as the creator of "Pogo", a comic that continues to amuse and amaze me. Happy news it is to find Fantagraphics Books is doing a reprint of everything Pogo. Check out Mark Evanier and the Kelly Studios site here: http://www.pogopossum.com/index.htm

Madame Tutli Putli

I've not seen this yet but after watching these clips it looks very good. Here is a link to an interview with the film-makers about the two years of darkness and tedium they endured to animate this stop-motion film. It never mentions if the eyes were real and put in later but that's what it looks like to me.

Check out the video here: http://www.nfb.ca/webextension/madame-tutli-putli/player.php?film=3

Sultan's Elephant

I love the surreal moments life throws out unexpectedly. Here is a tiny piece of a grand scale performance that happened over four days in London. You can go to YoutTube and find the Elephant yourselves. He's quite impressive and it looks as though a lovely time was had by all.

Ron Mueck

Hope you all have high speed connections and can enjoy this link to a video about the incredible Ron Mueck. The still image is just one of his startlingly real sculptures.

Watch video here: http://blip.tv/file/94203

Elephant Gun

I couldn't resist posting this lovely moody video with music by Beirut.

Cinema School

I've discovered a new favorite site from Stage 6 called Cinema School. Here's a link to an interview with David Lynch a director I'm fascinated and frustrated by. He comes across as a sweet almost childlike guy and the irony is not missed that he's surrounded by sharks. As David would say, "Keep your eye on the doughnut and not the hole".

http://stage6.divx.com/Cinema-School/video/1286184/Scene-By-Scene---David-Lynch

More Virtual Pose

I tired using “Virtual Pose #3” by Chakkour with my Wacon tablet again for figure drawing. I’m finding I can’t get a good global reading of proportions. To see anything on my small screen I need to zoom in and out and soon I’m lost. Also there has always been a bit of a disconnection for me drawing on a Wacom because the image is not directly under my pen. The Cintiq tablet looks like the way to go for digital drawing but I can’t afford one yet and my tablet is fine for my current work which does not involve much drawing.

Digital sketches by Joel

No MooCap!

Keith Lango has a post called Dangerous Opinions. it's about not being able to express an opinion because it might damage your career. I can understand if you break your confidentiality clause and leak something before release time or discrediting a film as it's being made. But what I found intriguing about this is the fear of speaking out against Motion Capture or Mo-cap. No animator wants to clean up mo-cap but the use is becoming more and more prevalent. It’s too bad that productions can’t use it judiciously. Say what you will about “The Barnyard” and those damn udders on males but here is a case in point where mo-cap was used well. Mo-cap was used ONLY on the background characters in a crowd. The rest of the cast were done by animators of which I was one.

Read Keith’s’ Post here: http://www.keithlango.com/wordpress/?p=649

Virtual Model

I can't get out for life drawing classes so I'm trying something different. I've had this book for awhile and never used it till now. It's "Virtual Pose #3" and consists of a book with numbered photos and a corresponding CD with QuickTime movies of the model that you can rotate 360 degrees and zoom in and out. I find there is a foreshortening that I need to overcome and sometimes I get disoriented zooming in and out. I'm drawing in Photoshop on my Wacom Tablet and it's difficult to make nice swooping lines like you can by rotating paper. These sketches are kind of scratchy but I suppose they could be cleaned up on another layer.

Digital sketches by Joel

Jim Tyer Smear

Thad K. has posted a break down of some Jim Tyer animation done at Terrytoons. Many have held Tyers’ work in high esteem but I personally find a large majority of it annoying. What set Tyer apart from other animators was his variation on the ‘smear’: a technique used to bridge large distances in fast moving objects or appendages. The smear was used to simulate the blurring found in live action motion pictures caused by fast movement and slow film speeds. Tyer used it in almost a reversed fashion where a part of the body, say a nose, would stretch out in a direction before anything else. Then the rest would stretch to catch up with it. Tyer also had the habit of doing ‘shrink takes’ where the character would actually shrink in size and then pop back out again. He also blinked the pupil of an eye without blinking the lids over the eyeball, very strange stuff.

See Thad’s study of Tyer work slowed down for full effect here: http://classicanimation.blogspot.com/

Mr. Men

We just got great feedback from Cartoon Network about the first four episodes of "The Mr. Men Show". It's going to be a pretty cute show and very funny. I think it will reach a wide range of age groups and most adults who have seen it find it funny and charming as well. Check out the site here: http://www.mrmen.com/

HELLZAPOPPIN

I wouldn't have believed it but people have posted bits of “Hellzapoppin”, the movie I mentioned in my last posting as the inspiration of the projectionist gag 12 years later in “Duck Amuck”, on YouTube. Watch this opening and I’m sure you’ll agree there was some cross-pollinating going on between toons and comedians. Thanks Rockhead for turning me on to this movie!

Origins of a Toon

Speaking of Jones, here is a piece I wrote of what I think were the origins of "Duck Amuck". Cartoon Brew had posted it awhile ago but I thought I would re post it here:

DUCK AMUCK
Indisputably Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese created the 1953 classic cartoon “Duck Amuck,” but the ideas and comic bits were around for a long time before they brought them to new light. The springboard seems to be Buster Keaton’s 1924 masterpiece “Sherlock Jr.” In it we find the continuity gags of changing backgrounds and props pulled and replaced. Next, a very specific split-frame gag can be traced to an obscure 1941 Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson adaptation of the play “Hellzapoppin.” Director H.C. Potter continually broke the fourth wall in this self-referencing farce, and created a projectionist joke where the film became stuck with the framing splitting the screen. The characters comment on their condition before the supposed projectionist can make the correction twelve years before Daffy found himself in the same situation.

Chuck Jones Documentary

I haven’t watched all eight parts yet but this looks like a good documentary on Chuck Jones posted on YouTube. The whole thing can be found here with a little digging: http://uk.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=KindOfMonty&p=r

I love Jones as a director but I’ve often wondered if he would have been as successful without Michael Maltese as his writer? I look at all the best loved and academy winning cartoons Jones did and they all were written by Maltese. I think it’s kind of like The Beatles. They were all talents individually but together they made history. Too bad you never hear much mention of Michael.

Dr. Pepper

I let some friends listen to my album of original music which I recorded on my off hours. I’m not much of a musician and play by ear but the response has been flattering and I’ve been compared with The Gorillas, Wean and even The Beatles. I did intentionally try for a Beatle sound sometimes and even did a mock cover which no one has seen till now. Just having fun, folks.

Click on image to enlarge.